By Ross Karl
Aaron Cruden was in high demand in Palmerston North, and rightfully so. The Hurricanes playmaker's late offloads clinched a comeback win over the Force.
“A light sort of went off in my head, that I've got to have a bit of a crack at the line and that's one of my real strengths, and yeah I was able to do that in the last 20 minutes and find a few little gaps and get a couple of balls away which is good,” he says.
The Canes started strongly, with Ma'a Nonu and Conrad Smith's reunion leading to the opening try.
But it was Cruden's opposite James Stannard, a halfback in his first game at first five, who controlled the first half.
Trailing 18-10 at halftime, Nonu ripped the ball off Smith to get them within a point.
But Stannard wasn't finished finding holes in the Canes defense and put Ben McCalman in.
That's when Cruden took charge, ensuring the Hurricanes didn't suffer another bonus loss.
“Although we've been putting the effort in we haven't really been getting the rewards, so it was really nice to get it tonight, and yeah when the crowd starting doing the mexican wave things started to turn around a bit for us. But full credit to the Western Force. We knew we had to do it for the full 80 and it was good to guts it out,” Cruden says.
Six from six with the boot capped a strong night for the six test All Black as the Canes try to finish a tough season strongly.
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